Courts and Crime

Last Wednesday, July 22, deputies with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office responded to the 5000 block of Old Country Road in Bedford in reference to an assault call.
According to a news release from the Sheriff's Office, deputies spoke to a male victim who was suffering from numerous cuts and lacerations. The victim told the deputies that he had responded to a Craigslist.com ad offering sexual services by a subject identifying herself as “Trinity,” and he had arranged with her to meet at her residence in the 5000 block of Old Country Road.

A 66-year-old Bedford man has been charged with aggravated sexual battery following a June 27 incident investigated by the Bedford Police Department.
Lewis William Hall, who lives in the Pinecrest Apartments, was arrested after police investigated a complaint.
When police arrived to investigate a dispute, an intoxicated female told officers that someone had been on top of her, having non-consensual sex with her while she had been asleep, according to Chief Todd Foreman of the Bedford Police Department.

The Forest man accused of attempting to abduct a 13-year-old boy last September pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to that and other charges during a hearing held July 7 in Bedford County Circuit Court.
Michael Anthony Wood Jr, 49, has already been held in custody for 10 months, pending trial and will remain in jail until a spot opens up in a psychiatric facility, according to Bedford County Commonwealth’s Attorney Randy Krantz.

Investigators first linked the naval officer and Top Gun graduate to a 14-year-old girl from Bedford County who sent him a topless selfie – only to be threatened with public humiliation if she refused more explicit instructions.

Then, federal agents said, they tied Lt. Daniel Chase Harris to eight other girls across the country and in Japan who experienced similar horrors.
But Harris’ case didn’t end there. While awaiting trial, he used a false name to draft a letter claiming he had been framed.

A lawsuit, alleging that racism motivated the school board to close Body Camp Elementary School rather than Moneta Elementary, has been moved to federal court.
A hearing was originally scheduled in Bedford County Circuit Court, last Friday afternoon, but the decision to move it to federal court was made prior to the hearing.

Weeks after the robbery of the Sonic in Forest in February 2014, Matthew Kukulski and Caitlin N. Williamson, boyfriend/girlfriend, became persons of interest in the robbery.
In August 2014, Bedford County Sheriff’s Investigator Steve Smith traveled to Florida where Kukulski was serving time in jail. While in Florida, Smith interviewed both Kuklski and Williamson.

Monday afternoon, at 5:54 p.m., Bedford County 911 dispatch received a call from a female on Triggs Road, Bedford, stating that she had been robbed by a male subject holding a large “butcher” knife to her stomach and demanding “all of her money.”

The victim gave the subject the contents of her wallet. After pushing the victim into a chair in the living room he exited the house by the back door, but not before cutting the phone lines so that a call could not be placed.